1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a liquid ejecting head which includes a piezoelectric element including a piezoelectric layer formed of a piezoelectric material and an electrode and discharges liquid droplets from a nozzle opening, a liquid ejecting apparatus, and a method of manufacturing a piezoelectric element.
2. Related Art
As a representative example of the liquid ejecting head, for example, there is an ink jet type recording head in which a part of a pressure generating chamber communicating with a nozzle which discharges ink droplets is configured with a vibrating plate, and the vibrating plate is deformed by a piezoelectric element and ink in the pressure generating chamber is pressurized to discharge as ink droplets from the nozzle. As a piezoelectric element used for the ink jet type recording head, there is a piezoelectric element which is configured to interpose a piezoelectric layer (piezoelectric film) which is formed of a piezoelectric material having an electromechanical transduction function, for example, a crystallized dielectric material, with two electrodes.
A high piezoelectric property is desired for the piezoelectric material used as the piezoelectric layer configuring such piezoelectric element, and as a representative example of the piezoelectric material, lead zirconate titanate (PZT) has been used (see JPA-2001-223404). However, from a viewpoint of environmental concerns, a piezoelectric material without lead or with suppressed content of lead is desired. As a piezoelectric material which does not contain lead, a BiFeO3 based piezoelectric material containing Bi and Fe (see JPA-2007-287745) and a BaTiO3 based piezoelectric material containing Ba and Ti (see JP-A-62-154680) have been known.
However, if the lead-free piezoelectric material containing Bi and Fe, or Ba and Ti described above is used, there has been a problem in that cracks are easily generated such that it is difficult to be used in practice. In addition, not only the ink jet-type recording head, but such problems also occurs in the same manner, in the other liquid ejecting head which discharges liquid droplets other than the ink, and also in a piezoelectric element used for other than the liquid ejecting head.